Words from a fellow amputee

Before you see the lengthiness of this post hear me out!  I didn't write it (yay, for you), this is all my Dad's writing.  It is a small portion of His testimony regarding His leg amputation.  I recently heard news of a gentleman who is awaiting an amputation and I asked my Dad to write him a letter and I was so moved that I couldn't refrain from posting it.  I realize this will not resonate with many of you, but some will find it inspirational, informative, and helpful.  Sometimes we forget that our parents aren't invincible, but God works and I am incredibly inspired by people who are not defined by their "disabilities."  So I hope you enjoy and any feedback would be lovingly accepted.  

Dear __________,

My son Mikey Tribbie asked me to write you a quick a letter so I could relay some personal information about my amputation.  It started out about six, almost seven years ago when I had dry skin on the bottoms of my feet that I would pick off.  At that point I had been a diabetic for over 20 years.  Once, I ended up pulling off a piece of dead skin that didn't break off like all the others did and ended up pulling a big chunk of skin out of the bottom on my foot right around the ball part, just below the big toe.  I applied first aid and thought I had it all taken care, but due to being a diabetic, it just wasn't healing.  I kept thinking I could take care of myself but it just wouldn't heal.  Between the diabetes and constantly walking on it, even though I always had some type of dressing on it except to take a bath or shower, it just wouldn't heal.  I finally decided to go see my Dr. At the VA.  They performed all kinds of treatments from a weekly cast to just about anything else you can think of.  They would cut the old dead skin off from around it, patch it up, and try something new the next week.  This went on for a total of five years.  Finally my podiatrist here in Ohio (this started in Ca.) could see the that my foot was never going to heal as long as those two bones, that support the ball of the foot, were still in there.  He sent me to Pittsburgh VA to have them operate but all they did was scrape off the dead skin and put different kinds of cushions in my shoe so I wouldn't put any pressure on the bones.  After several treatments it didn't show any improvement.  So my local podiatrist recommended that I go outside of the VA and have a local podiatrist look at it and see what he thought, and if so, do the operation.(Removing the two bones) The day of the operation was scheduled and I went in to get the two bones removed.  Complications set in and somehow my foot got infected.  I looked at my foot the next day when they were changing the dressing and noticed several large cuts around my foot with tubes coming out of them trying to drain the infection out of my foot.  The Dr. That did the operation was getting concerned and referred me to another Dr. Who decided to give me a cat scan to see what was going on.  The cat scan showed I had gangrene gases up to my knee.  The new Dr. Said he was going to have to amputate my leg before the gangrene got into my abdomen and chest which would have killed me for sure.  He didn't know if he could do it, but he said he would try to save my knee if at all possible.  The reason being, amputations of below the knee are much easier to learn to walk again with a prosthetic limb. 

He wasn't able to save my knee, so now my prosthetic limb has a knee joint, which makes learning to walk a lot more difficult.  I still haven't mastered walking without a walker and I still spend a lot of time in a wheelchair.  The only thing I can do with any confidence is just stand. Mikey told me he thought your Dr. Was talking about amputating your foot due to poor circulation or neuropathy.  Neuropathy, as you probably know, is when the nerves in your hands, feet, legs or arms, basically shut down.  Neuropathy is something you can live with, I have it in both in my hands and my other foot and about 2/3 way up my leg.  My hands hurt most of the time and I have that tingling feeling like when you're hand falls asleep and it's waking up, like when it feels like needles and pins sticking in it all the time.  My problem with my hands and feet are that I have no feeling in them, especially with my foot, I have to be extra careful and have some kind of a shoe on most of the time because I have been known to scratch my foot on something and not know it.  Actually, I could have somebody drive a nail through my foot and I wouldn't feel it.  I still have blood flow to my hands and foot, my problem is the nerves.  I am assuming that if your left Dr. Wants to amputate your foot you are having circulation problems.  That is what happened to my father.  He lost circulation in his legs and they tried transplanting arteries in his legs to increase the blood flow.  It worked for a little while but eventually his toes and foot began to turn black and die.  They ended up amputating his foot and lower part of the shin.  It didn't take him long to get use to his new leg.  This is back in the days when all they had for a foot was a piece wood shaped like a foot. Now a days they have all kinds of attachments that can be used for standing, walking, and even running.  I am sure you have seen the Olympics and other running sports with a runner who had no feet at all.  As long as you can take care of your feet and legs and they only have to remove parts below the knee, your recovery and rehabilitation should be quite a short time, maybe even shorter than you would think.

I'm not one of those people who tell you, I know what you are going through, and have both their own feet.  I am speaking from experience, I know what you are going through, and I know what you're going to go through.  The thought of losing a limb is scary as all get out.  The fear of the unknown is not fun.  As far as advice, I would suggest visiting a local rehab center/hospital and ask someone there what type of exercises you can do to help you in your preparation for recovery and rehabilitation.  Depending on where you go, they may have a prosthetics department were you can go and see what sort of devices are available.  Since I went straight from my foot operation, to a cat scan, to my amputation, I did not have the luxury or time to investigate anything ahead of time.

If you're anything like me, I am a big baby when it comes to pain.  I don't like it and I try to stay away from it the best I can.  I was really surprised, the hospital did a very good job of keeping me out of pain.  My big problem was learning how to transfer from the bed to a wheelchair.  Most hospitals use a wooden board that is about 3 foot long, 8 to 10 inches wide, 3/4 inch thick, and tapered on both ends so you can kind of lean to one side, slide it underneath you, sit back up, then scoot across the board to the wheelchair or back into your bed.  Once you get good at it, you will eventually not need the board anymore.  I was in a hospital a little over four weeks total.  The reason being, one was the foot operation, and the rest of the time my Dr. wanted the staples in my leg to be in for four weeks.  Once they took the staples out, which I barely even felt, they sent me home.  I still had to come back every other day for dialysis and then down the hall to rehabilitation. 

The hardest part I had with rehabilitation was using a walker and hopping.  They want you to be able to get around even if you didn't have a prosthetic limb.  Since I had been in a wheelchair for almost five years, trying to keep weight off of my foot so it would heal, I had lost a lot of muscle mass making the hopping, standing and sitting, and lifting weights and other exercises with my good leg of a little on the hard side.  I'm gonna go out on a limb here and assume you're still walking.  If so, you're rehabilitation should go pretty quick.  You'll be back out playing with your kids sooner than you think.  You may use a walker or a came in the beginning but you'll soon be putting them in the corner.

I hope this helps answer a few of your questions that I'm sure you have and fill in a few of the blanks that most people won't tell you.  I will have my e-mail at the end of this letter in case you have any other questions or concerns about your upcoming procedure.  Trust me, God will be with you and Jesus will be there for your every request. If you have any questions or concerns, before, during, or after, feel free to shoot me an e-mail, ask me on Facebook, or call me on Skype.

Your new friend,

Mike Tribbie